, 1887-03-15
MAKING CHOCOLATE.
THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING
THE COCOA CAKES OF COMMERCE.

Picking Out Bad Kernels and Defective
Notwithstanding and Mixing the Cocoon
and the Sugar-Ths Last Working.
Finished Tablets.
The first operation is the picking over.
The cocoon bean comes in bags. II is
shaken to get rid of any foreign bodies
which may have gotten mixed in Mt the
time OF gathering-pebbles, bits Of wood
and leaves.
AT the same time bad kernels and de-
fective berries are spied out. The sieve
which is used In this operation is u most
wonderful affair, the berries and sticks
and stones falling through the holes which
they fit and thus being quite separated.
Tho sorted cocoa Is then broken up in II
sort of mill, each separate hopper hold
ing about so kilograms. The operation,
which lasts from threc-quartcrs Of an
hour to an hour, is very delicate. Upon
its success depends that OF a whole period
OF bon-bon making.
Then comes the winnowing and bruis-
ing of the berry in II machine similar in
use as well as appearance to an old fash
Toned flour mill with its grindstones. 1t
bruised the bean between two fiuted cylin
dcrs, while a ventilator blows out the
fragments of skin or shell, and the grain
OF the cocoa, by reason of its weight, falls
below. On leaving the machine the cocoa
goes to u new group of ''pickers over
who subject each fragment Of berry to Il
last and close examination.
COCOA n SUGAR.
The cocoa Is now ut the point of be-
coming paste. Ten years ago this change
was accomplished by hand work alone.
The cocoon and sugar-the only ingredients
of healthful, pure chocolate-were
pounded in a mortar by the aid of a pestle,
then spread upon n stone table, gently
warmed from underneath. The workman
finished the bruising and the mixing by
rolling the mass with n rolling pin until
the blending was complete.
To-day h bruising and the mixing of
the cocoa and the sugar Is done mechanic
ally In n series of granite basins. These
basins, hung upon n vertical axle, turn
slowly while the cocoa is again being
ground and stirred by two small grind
stones hung above.
Tho sort of butter which the cocoa berry
contains and the correct temperature
maintained beneath the granite basins
soon brings o the commingling of the
cocoa and the sugar into n homogeneous
paste. The grinders complete the trans
formation by floating the paste between
two diamond shaped cylinders, also of
granite. This mechanism can be so regu-
lated rs to make the mixture fine or coarse
in quality as may he desired.
After leaving the grinders the chocolate
is placed in n drying house, from which it
comes for n new going over.
THE LAST X
: This last working of the paste brings it
into the human hand, which beats it thor
Atrn 1T a - fl .lI
thereby giving 1t its incompatible fine
ness. This working has also for an object
the bringing of all parts of the paste to
the same temperature. Once thoroughly
warmed it is then run through n pipe into
u sort of cone, where, by means of n
screw, the last air bubbles are squeezed
out, and it comes forth looking like n
black pudding. There remains nothing
now but the very Inst appearance of all
that of the tablet. Upon the table where
the molds are placed the workman spreads
his paste out evenly, pressing it down
smoothly in all directions by wide sweeps
of his arm. For this operation no machine
can replace the man. 1t is necessary to
have motions as well calculated and as va
rious as those Of the human hand to
arrive at the desired result, which is to
give to tho paste that brilliancy and
Shine which makes the finished tablets
SO tempting to the eye.
The cakes are nodded while cooling.
They are cooled down below on the
tables set up in u long subterranean gal
lcry made expressly for the purpose-a
veritable tunnel, in fact. Beneath the
tables passes n stream Of cool air. At the
end of half an hour the chocolate is cool,
consequently shrunk. n little and drawn
away from the mold, of which each is, by
the way, the very image.
There remains nothing but to make the
toilet Of the n that it may appear to
the world.-F. b. Merrill in New York
Graphic.